Aretha Franklin, the legendary Queen of Soul, has died right this moment (August 16), the Associated Press and TMZ report. She was 76 years outdated. The reason behind loss of life has not been revealed.
Last 12 months, Franklin introduced a semi-retirement from dwell efficiency. In March, she canceled two upcoming concerts, citing physician’s orders to relaxation. In mid-August, it was reported that Franklin was “gravely ill.” Her final dwell efficiency befell in November 2017 at a fundraiser for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
During her outstanding half-century profession, Franklin broke boundaries, impressed hundreds of thousands, and altered the form of standard music. In 2010, Rolling Stone named her the greatest singer of all time. In 1987, she grew to become the primary lady inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis raised in Detroit by a gospel singer mom and reverend father. Franklin and her sisters grew up singing within the church, and at age 14, she launched her recording profession with the album Songs of Faith. In 1960, Franklin signed to Columbia and started making jazz-influenced R&B information, scoring one minor crossover hit with “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody.”
In 1966, she joined Atlantic. On her first single for the label, 1967’s traditional “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Loved You),” producer Jerry Wexler recorded her with Alabama’s Muscle Shoals session band. Plenty extra hits adopted for Franklin on Atlantic all through the late ’60s and early ’70s: “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” “Respect,” “Baby I Love You,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “Chain of Fools,” “Think,” and extra. During this era, Franklin delivered grittier vocals than throughout her years at Columbia and emerged as a soul music icon.
Around the identical time, Franklin scored extra hits by reinterpreting standard songs like Dionne Warwick’s “I Say a Little Prayer,” the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” She gained the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance Grammy eight consecutive instances from 1967 by 1974. (She gained 18 Grammys all through her life, together with a Lifetime Achievement Award.) She sang at Martin Luther King’s funeral in 1968. In 1972, she had an enormous success with the gospel double album Amazing Grace.
Franklin left Atlantic in 1979, however continued to make hits for Arista within the ’80s, together with “Freeway of Love,” “Who’s Zoomin’ Who,” and “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” with George Michael. And her standing as a nationwide treasure continued to develop. She sang on the Presidential inaugurations of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, and likewise had a scene-stealing look in The Blues Brothers. In 1998, the identical 12 months she collaborated with Lauryn Hill on “A Rose Is Still a Rose,” she delivered a show-stopping efficiency on the Grammy Awards, standing in for an ailing Luciano Pavarotti to belt out the Puccini aria “Nessun Dorma.” In 2005, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In latest years, she worked with André 3000, covered Adele, and, memorably, brought President Obama to tears throughout a efficiency of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” in 2015.
At the time of her loss of life, Franklin had reportedly been engaged on a final album, produced partly by Stevie Wonder.
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